Urban form and travel behavior: experience from a Nordic context

This article surveys the results of research carried out in the Nordic countries on the influence of various aspects of urban form and settlement patterns on travel behavior, and discusses these results in the view of studies carried out in other European, American, Australian and Asian countries. There is quite overwhelming evidence that urban spatial structures matter to travel behavior. However, whereas much of the research in America and parts of Europe has focused on the influences of local neighborhood characteristics on travel, the Nordic research shows effects on travel behavior mainly from urban form characteristics at a higher geographical scale: the overall population density within continuous urban areas, and the locations of residences and workplaces relative to the city-level or metropolitan center structure.